Andrew65

I'm talking 2016/17.

Different to the UK & Canada then.

As you probably know, it's possible to get a tourist visa for your teelak (whom otherwise would never be given one) to come to a Western country by simply giving "an agent" 20,000 Baht. I know a few guys who did that.

The Bangkok resident that I know travels to Pattaya to do his.

OK yes, my last visits were 6 or 7 years ago, both occasions I was in & out of there in 20 minutes. (As I mentioned, Laksi/BKK was always 2 hours plus).

Jomtien is a walk in the park compared to Chaeng Wattana/Laksi in Bangkok. I used Jomtien twice when I lived in Patts, but most of my time was spent in Bangkok. I would say on average it took 30 minutes in Jomtien, and 2 hours at CW. I think it's just down to the sheer volume of people that use the Bangkok office.

The excuse the guy I know uses is that if he does this he can leave the 800k overseas and make some interest on it. The only thing being is that I would think it costs him 20,000+ Baht a year to use the agent, if you include 4 trips pa BKK-Pattaya. He did it the legal way for about 12 years before. I couldn't see why he started using an agent when as far as I could see he could just carry on doing it the legal way.

I know of an expat who travels from BKK to Pattaya 4 times a year to do this. The only thing being, I don't know why. Money's not an issue for him, and he was doing it the legal way for about 12 years.

If they or anyone else says anything against it they're villified, cancelled etc. Author JK Rowling being an example of that.

Sport is about the only area of life where segregation by gender is allowed and is part of the system.

That's 4 less lookie-lookie men then! ????

All the hookers that ever seen (usually on TV) in the UK and the USA, you wouldn't want to go with them at all, even for free,????!

It is actually possible to be a volcel (voluntarily celebate), can't be bothered with that stuff any more????

One thing in Thailand is that women's-lib is yet to arrive there as it did in the West about 50 years ago. I'll give an example of what I mean. I remember my old (very wealthy) Swedish friend talking about his Thai live-in girlfriend. He said that she would get up every morning to make his breakfast "A Swedish lady would never do that". Thai ladies haven't spent their entire lives being indoctinated with the idea that they should be just like men. IMHO, many Thai ladies have a femininity that is hard to find in Western ladies nowadays, many of whom seem to be out to bust the balls (mainly financially) of any man who's unfortunate enought to get involved with them.

"If it flies, floats or <deleted>**s, rent it"

When men do such things they're "Sex Tourists". When women do such things it's a "Holiday romance". ☺️

Evasion is illegal, avoidance is legal, it's knowing the difference between the two. Avoidance could also be called "Mitigating one's tax liability", legally reducing how much tax you pay.

About 10 years ago I worked in a job where I got to travel a lot around Australia. We were in a town near the QLD/NT border and in a local shop where you could drink a few beers, but there was a sign there saying no booze to be taken away. Also big signs by the road stating NO ALCOHOL - NO PORNOGRPHY. In PNG booze was banned on our camp, mainly because if the locals started drinking they were likely to start hacking each other to death with 'bushknives' (rather like a 'machete').

You're right. But we all know that whenever a farang dies in Thailand the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork. As you say, it's perfectly possible and most likely that this guy died of natural causes, RIP. Some years ago the Australian authorities reported that more Australians die in Thailand every year than in any other foreign country. (Common causes of their deaths being drowning, riding motorbikes, illict drugs).

Nope, legally you still need a work permit. You even need a W P if you're doing unpaid voluntary work.

FUD?

Just make sure that you don't upset the locals!????

"...unemployment is barely above 1%" If you'll believe that you'll believe anything. For one thing, Thailand doesn't have a proper system of measuring employment/unemployment. Also, many older Thai people live with their children, in the UK/other western countries they would be living independently of their children, and classed as unemployed. In Western countries is often said that realistically the lowest that unemployment is likley to be is 5%.

In the UK large numbers of people are allowed to come in and do pretty much any job they want. We now have 10 million people here who were born overseas. Things like roads, the NHS etc are creaking under the strain. There's also a "Housing crisis".

Mowing your own lawn? You could/should be employing a Thai person to do that. I had an old friend that lived in Phuket and used to worry about pruning his Lime trees, just waiting for the immigration police to show up!